NEWS OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICT & INTOLERANCE,

2004-JULY

2004-JUL-6: OR: Roman Catholic diocese
files for bankruptcy: The Archdiocese of Portland, OR, and its
insurers, have already paid out more than $53 million over the past 50
years to settle more than 130 claims by people who say that they have
been abused by priests. Plaintiffs in two lawsuits involving the late
Rev. Maurice Grammond have sought a total of over $160 million. Because
of these costs, the diocese has been forced to file for bankruptcy. It
is the first archdiocese in the history of the American church to have
done this. Spokesperson Bud Bunce said that church operations will
continue as usual. 11

2004-JUL-6: Federal Government warns
Sarasota County, FL officials: The U.S. Department of Justice warned
Sarasota County officials that they may have acted unfairly when they
refused a Muslim group permission to build a mosque. The
Islamic Society of Sarasota and Bradenton wants to build a mosque
with two minarets that are 80 feet tall. The County Commission ruled in
February that the tower could be no taller than 40 feet. They have not
placed a restriction of this type on 14 other religious buildings
approved by the County since 2002. The Justice Department sent a letter
to the County indicating that its investigation was preliminary in
nature, but that it had received information that the county may have
imposed "a substantial burden on the religious exercise'' of the
Islamic Society. If proven, that would be an unconstitutional act. 17

2004-JUL-24: WV: Muslim woman on trial
for speaking against hatred: Thirty five members of the Islamic
Center in Morgantown WV signed a petition demanding that a woman
member be placed on trial with the possible result of banning her from
the mosque. The petition charges that she has engaged in "actions and
practices that are disruptive to prayer, worship and attendance
[and]....actions and practices that were harmful to the members of our
community." According to her father, her crime was: "...speaking
out against gender inequity, hate and intolerance at our mosque."
Women are allegedly require to enter the mosque by a back door and are
restricted to a secluded balcony where they cannot see or speak to
males. Her trial is allegedly to be conducted in secret. 12

2004-JUL-24: France: Showdown over
religious symbols expected in September: A new "secularity law" was passed in 2004-MAR that
prohibits the wearing of religious symbols in French schools. It bans the
wearing of Muslim hijabs, Sikh's head coverings, large Christian crosses
or crucifixes, Jewish yarmulkes, etc. The Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF), issued a
statement recommending that girls wear "discreet"
head coverings to avoid violating the law. In an apparent
conflict with this statement, the French government has issued
guidelines to schools which states that the ban covers both: "signs
and behavior...whose wearing immediately makes known a person’s
religious faith." More details20

2004-JUL-25: India: Proposal to ban
witchcraft -- an apparent hoax: A number of websites have reported
that the United Nations has released a report expressing concern about
the large number of women around the world who were accused of being
witches and murdered -- generally by vigilante groups out of fear. The
report allegedly states that India and some countries in Africa, Asia
and South America have high incidences of witchcraft-related killings.
They estimate that 2,556 women were accused of witchcraft and executed
in India between 1987 and 2003. They report a further total of 4,000
murders in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Australia between 1999
and 2003. The websites report that the government of India is planning
to tackle the problem by outlawing witchcraft. That would be like
outlawing Christianity because so many Christians are being killed by
Hindus. We assume that the story is a hoax. There were zero witches
murdered for their religion in the UK and Australia since 1999; there
does not appear to be any UN report on this topic. 14,15,16

2004-JUL-30: Serbia/Montegenegro: Discriminatory religion bill
drafted: Forum 18 reports that: "If passed, the bill would give
full rights only to religious communities recognized by the parliament
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1918 and 1941. These communities
are the Serbian Orthodox Church, [Roman] Catholics, Muslims, Jews,
Slovak and Hungarian/German Lutherans, and the Hungarian Reformed
Church. They will receive substantial state financial support and the
right to perform marriages, burials and to maintain marriage registers.
Other religious communities would be denied these rights and have
strongly criticized the bill, the Baptists pointing out to Forum 18 that
the only communities recognized are essentially mono-ethnic, and so the
bill discriminates against "multi-ethnic" religious communities and is
thus un-constitutional. Milan Radulovic, Minister of Religion, has
dismissed criticisms as 'communist'.....Several NGOs, including the
Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights in Serbia, joined the criticism, as did one political party, the
Social Democratic Union......The Belgrade-based Association for
Religious Freedom also issued a statement complaining it was
'discriminatory to name only some
so-called traditional churches and religious communities.' The
Association requested the Ministry of Religion to add a preamble to the
bill defining the terms 'church', 'religious community' and 'religious
association'." 18 More details

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